[EL] Supreme Court now seems as bad-mannered as congress

[Smith, Brad]

I wouldn't put any stock in the sign-off line. Justices sometimes say "I respectfully dissent," and sometimes simply say "I dissent." Ginsburg routinely says "I dissent."


Bradley A. Smith

Josiah H. Blackmore II/Shirley M. Nault

   Professor of Law

Capital University Law School

303 E. Broad St.

Columbus, OH 43215

614.236.6317

http://law.capital.edu/faculty/bios/bsmith.aspx

________________________________
From: law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu [law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu] on behalf of Richard Winger [richardwinger at yahoo.com]
Sent: Wednesday, June 26, 2013 1:21 PM
To: law-election at UCI.EDU
Subject: [EL] Supreme Court now seems as bad-mannered as congress

My e-mail is not really election-law related, but since Richard Pildes posted on the election law blog about today's DOMA decision, subject matter constraint is relaxed today!

This morning I read Justice Scalia's dissent in Windsor, and I don't remember seeing such a bad-tempered dissent ever before in the US Supreme Court.  And, yes, at the end, he said, "I dissent", not "I respectfully dissent", the more normal ending line for dissents.  Chief Justice Roberts dissent in the DOMA case doesn't end with either line.  Alito ended his dissent with the normal "I respectfully dissent."

Then we have the eye-witness accounts from a few days ago that Alito rolled his eyes while Ginsburg was reading her dissent in another case.

Richard Winger
415-922-9779
PO Box 470296, San Francisco Ca 94147
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